William f



(No Model.)-

W. P. HEAL-D. ART OF PRINTING.

No. 479,508. Patented July 26, 1892.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

\VILLIAM F. I-IEALD, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

ART OF PRINTING.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 479,508, dated July 26, 1892.

Application filed January 20, 1892- Serial No. 418,645. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, VILLIAM F. HEALD, a citizen of the United States, residing at New York, in the county and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in the Art of Printing, of which the following is a specification, reference being had to the drawings accompanying and forming a part of the same.

This invention consists in a new and improved method of obtaining plates or printing-surfaces similar to stereotypes or electrotypes, from which to obtain printed impressions.

In carrying out my invention I proceed in the following manner: I select a sheet of matrix-paper or card-board of good quality and similar to that which is employed in connection with matrix-making machines, in which the type-dies are successively impressed into the matrix material. Over this sheet I then lay and secure two sheets of copper, each of two one-thousandths of an inch in thickness. This copper must be pot-annealed or otherwise treated, so that it will be very soft and at the same time tenacio us. Thecard-board, with its superposed copper sheets, is then placed in the carriage of a matrix-making machine, which is provided with a series of type-dies that are adapted to be successively forced into the yielding bed formed by the said copper and paper sheets, It is also essential that the dies be driven into such bed by a blow or impact of extreme suddenness as distinguished from a gradual or prolonged pressure, and that the depth of all the impressions thus formed be perfectly uniform. A machine now well known to the public of suitable character for this purpose is that known as the Goodson electro-matrix machine, a description of the details of which is contained in application for patent, Serial No. 267,796, filed March 20,1888. \Vhen in this way a matrix has been formed and the two copper sheets are stripped from the cardboard and from each other, the under or relief surface of the upper copper sheet will be found to afford a very excellent printingsurface, from which impressions may be directly obtained as clear and distinct as from the most carefully-prepared stereotype from a matrix. This sheet I therefore flush or back with stereotype metal in the manner usually followed in the treatment and preparation of electrotypes and use it in the same manner.

I have been somewhat precise in my statement of the details of this invention; but careful tests and experiments have demonstrated to me that the prescribed conditions produce the best results. For example, I have found that a single copper sheet of a thickness of three one-thousandths of an inch, although prepared in other respects with the greatest care, when substituted for the two superposed copper sheets above de scribed, yields a poorer and coarser printingsurface than either of the two. I have also found that the character of the material on which the copper sheets are laid is an important element, and that matrix card-board of good quality is superior to others that I have tried. I prefer to use copper thor oughly annealed; but other metals may be substituted without departing from the invention.

In the process of forming the printing-surface which I have above described as the one which I select it is evident that two other means of obtaining the same rinted matter are at the same time produce -viz., the under or lower copper sheet, similar to the first, and the matrix formed in the card-board, in which stereotypes may be cast. Both of these, however, are much inferior to the first, although they may be used for much ordinary work.

The accompanying drawing represents in section a matrix board or paper A, the two superposed sheets of copper B C, and a die D.

What I claim is 1. The method of obtaining a printing-surface herein described, which consists in superposing independent thin sheets of metal character-dies into the copper sheets, and then stripping apart the said sheets, as set [0 forth.

' WILLIAM F. HEALD.

Witnesses:

ERNEST HOPKINSON, RAPHAEL NETTER. 

